Details

Date Published

April 18, 2016

CPU Clock Rate

3.5GHz

GPU Core Clock Rate

1GHz

GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate

7GHz

Description

My dreams of a life with ultra 60 fps gaming have come to life. After spending a few months swapping and building parts, the semi-budget rig is complete and I now happily enjoy the games I've for so long had to play on low or not play at all.

6600k -- Good enough for gaming, and even for streaming. I'm not a Youtuber and I can push this as far as necessary if I ever need extra computing power. Currently overclocked to a modest 4.1GHz

MSI SLI PLUS -- A good enough motherboard for me. This was the toughest choice of the build, but I decided to leave myself open to the possibility of getting a second 980ti in the future. I've had no problems at all with it and I haven't been left wishing I had any other features.

WD Black and Toshiba Drives -- The Black was from a gutted external drive and the Toshiba was a never-used replacement drive for my previous computer. I'd have put the price I paid for them, but it was more than 3 years ago and I have no idea what I paid.

PNY 980Ti -- Was originally looking at a 380 for this build, but when I saw this on Jet I had to pull the trigger. Yes it's a reference and yes it runs hot as hell, but I would have kicked myself if I let it slip by for ~$450.

Fractal Design R5 -- The case is wider than I thought it would be, but it's a beauty. My last case was a ****** Dell prebuilt, so this case is like a breath of fresh air. Crazy amount of fan slots.

850W P2 -- So originally I went for the 750W P2 in the early stages of the build. I went so far as to place it in and hook everything up. But as the build progressed, I got worried about upgrade-ability and how it would handle an OC'd 6600k and (maybe) OC'd 980ti SLI. I ended up swapping to the 850W when I saw it on sale for a price that matched the price I'd pay to return the 750W. I chose platinum over gold because the price difference is not significant and the machine will be turned on more often than not. So the platinum will pay for itself over the course of a few years.

MyDigitalSSD -- Obscure SSD. Is it good? So far I've had 0 problems with it. Tests I've done show it gives full 500+ Read, Write, and Mixed. Honestly, I don't even know what differences this drive would have compared to the samsung 850 evo.

Extra Case Fans -- Gotta cool off that 980Ti somehow! If I'm stuck with the reference cooler because of warranty, then I gotta make the best of it.

CPU Cooler

Motherboard

A good enough motherboard for me. This was the toughest choice of the build, but I decided to leave myself open to the possibility of getting a second 980ti in the future. I've had no problems at all with it and I haven't been left wishing I had any other features.

Memory

Video Card

Was originally looking at a 380 for this build, but when I saw this on Jet I had to pull the trigger. Yes it's a reference and yes it runs hot as hell, but I would have kicked myself if I let it slip by for ~$450.

Power Supply

So originally I went for the 750W P2 in the early stages of the build. I went so far as to place it in and hook everything up. But as the build progressed, I got worried about upgrade-ability and how it would handle an OC'd 6600k and (maybe) OC'd 980ti SLI. I ended up swapping to the 850W when I saw it on sale for a price that matched the price I'd pay to return the 750W. I chose platinum over gold because the price difference is not significant and the machine will be turned on more often than not. So the platinum will pay for itself over the course of a few years.

Nice supply, easy to install (besides bending cables around the case), and came with nice sleeved cables.

At stock it underperforms. My solution was to overclock with afterburner, make a custom fan curve, and add some more case fans. After that, User Benchmarks tells me it runs above average and the temps max out at ~65 with 80% fan speed.

While there's definitely better and more expensive cards out there that don't have reference coolers, I'm satisfied with this card.